Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Earthquakes don’t kill, buildings do. In the recent Nepalese
earthquake almost all the victims were buried in the rubble of their houses
made by untrained masons of stones barely stuck together with mud. It is a very
popular method, because it is the cheapest – stones and mud are free, bricks
and cement cost more money.

In Ramche scattered over the terraced hills of district
Dhading, 38 km northwest of Kathmandu, 168 houses out of a total 181 are no
longer inhabitable. According to the latest government report, the disaster
damaged 607,212 buildings in 16 districts. Of them, 63 percent in areas
dominated by Tamangs – the largest and the most destitute group among the
Tibeto-Burman speaking peoples of the Himalayan region – although they constitute
less than six percent (1.35 million) of Nepal’s population. Ramche is a Tamang
village. Some of the people own small plots of land on which they grow corn and
potatoes of walnut size, but crops can feed the farmers’ family only for two to
three months. For the rest of the year they live on contracted labour. The
residents of Ramche admit they are very poor. Why? Because, their answer goes,
their fathers were poor, as well as the fathers of their fathers. They accept
this as a judgment of fate and do not feel discriminated against, only showing
how inequity is grown into the tissue of the society, the result of concerted
exploitation for centuries. This hill tribe has always provided a labour
reserve pool for the rulers of Kathmandu. In the past, Tamangs were prevented
from joining the administration and the military. Even today they may man the
barricades but have little role in the upper hierarchy of the armed forces or
police, and are unrepresented in the country´s national affairs.

Earthquakes don’t kill, inequity does – out of 8,844 people
who died in the earthquake, 3,012 were Tamangs. Over 50 percent of the victims
belonged to the marginalised communities. More than half the victims were
women. Being Buddhists did not immunise Tamangs from the caste system evolved
by ruling Hindus. Those who wield power belong to Brahmin, Newars and Chhetri
people and these “well-born” elites look down on the Tamangs. Economic
deprivation has increased the influx of indigent peasants to the job markets of
Kathmandu, where they make up half of the porters and the majority of
three-wheeler tempo (”taxi”) drivers. Prison surveys have shown that a
disproportionate number of Tamangs are behind bars for criminal offences.

They have never counted on any government’s help, and this
time is no different. After the earthquake, the residents of Ramche helped each
other, cooked meals together and joined hands to raise themselves up from the
rubble. With a little help from NGOs, the situation was brought under control. Only
time will tell if, in the process of planning reconstruction, the government of
Nepal will use an opportunity to find out why the Tamangs are so vulnerable to
natural disasters and what can be done to protect them from future calamities.